land of odd
1. Leona Helmsley and her dog
Don't laugh - if she were your master, you'd need a lifetime supply of Prozac too
Upon her death, Leona Helmsley leaves $12 million to her white Maltese, Trouble. And the poor pooch now receives death threats.
2. High-tech toilet disaster
Japanese manufacturer Toto apologizes to customers and offers free repairs for 180,000 high-tech toilets - thrones that feature heated seats, air purifiers, blow dryers, and water sprayers - after at least three catch fire. "Fortunately nobody was using the toilets when the fire broke out," says a company spokesman. "The fire would have been just under your buttocks."
3. Help the fat - give them food
Disneyland announces plans to close the "It's a Small World" attraction to deepen its water channel after the ride's boats start getting stuck under loads of heavy passengers. Employees ask larger passengers to disembark - and compensate them with guess what - coupons for free food.e
4. Microsoft's PR Firm Fiasco
While working on an article about Microsoft, Wired contributing editor (and former Fortune writer) Fred Vogelstein receives a 13-page dossier about himself, describing him as "tricky" and his stories as "sensational." The document, prepared by the company's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, as background for Microsoft executives, was sent inadvertently to the writer.
5. Drink With The Dumb Name
After receiving a warning from the FDA, Redux Beverages agrees to stop calling its energy drink Cocaine. It changes the name first to Censored, then to NoName.
6. Cartoon Network Buzz-Marketing Flop
To build buzz for its animated show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network places electronic lightboards throughout Boston, triggering a bomb scare that shuts down two bridges, an expressway, a subway station, and a stretch of the Charles River. The devices depict a character from the show saluting passersby with an upraised middle finger.
7. Analize This
In March, shortly after No. 2 U.S. subprime lender New Century Financial announces a major earnings restatement as a result of failing loans, Bear Stearns analysts Scott Coren and Michael Nannizzi write a research note on New Century. They argue that despite New Century's stock having plunged 50%, to $15 per share, its downside risk is no worse than $10 in a "rescue-sale scenario." Within a month, New Century drops below $1 a share, is suspended by the NYSE, and files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
8. Oral B Vibrator
Lawyers representing Procter & Gamble send a 66-page cease-and-desist letter to British sex-toy company Love Honey, demanding that it stop using images of its Oral B electric toothbrushes to promote a product called the Brush Bunny - a rabbit-shaped piece of plastic that slips over the top of an Oral B to turn it into a vibrator.
9. Best Buy Kiosk Scam
The state of Connecticut sues Best Buy for setting up in-store kiosks set to a website that looks identical to bestbuy.com but lists higher prices than those they would actually find online.
10. The $54 Million Dollar Judge
District of Columbia judge Roy Pearson loses a $54 million lawsuit against the owners of a dry-cleaning establishment that he claims misplaced a pair of his pants. Pearson argued that the cleaner committed fraud by failing to live up to the SATISFACTION GUARANTEED sign displayed in the shop. Four months later a judicial review committee votes against reappointing him to his post, finding that he failed to demonstrate "appropriate judgment and judicial temperament."
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Land Of Odd: School District To Pay $95,000 In Legal Fees To Families That Pooh-Poohed Dress Code
land of odd
Officials in a Northern California school district might not think Tiggers are such wonderful things after agreeing to pay $95,000 in lawyers' fees to five families who sued the school over its dress code.
The parents went to court after a student was disciplined for wearing socks with the "Winnie the Pooh" cartoon character Tigger on the first day of school last year.
The district's superintendent said Thursday that the settlement money is for the plaintiffs' lawyers; the district is also on the hook to pay the lawyers it hired.
The settlement also says Redwood Middle School may no longer require students to wear only solid-color clothing.
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Land Of Odd: Man Shoots Himself In The Ass
land of odd
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - A Scottsdale man inadvertently shot himself in the buttocks Thursday morning. Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said Daniel Leatherman, 26, heard a disturbance outside his apartment and saw a man he knew fighting with a cab driver.
Leatherman told police that the man, Cody Nunn, 25, had assaulted him in the past, so he grabbed his gun and went outside.
Leatherman told police that he accidentally dropped the gun while hiding it behind his back and shot himself in the derriere.
Nunn and Leatherman’s friends took him to a local hospital. When police arrived, Clark said Nunn was drunk and disruptive. He was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct.
Leatherman was released from the hospital later Thursday. There were no phone listings for Leatherman or Nunn.
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Land Of Odd: Walmart pulls 'Superbad' DVD in Hawaii for featuring fake Hawaii license
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Bonus packages of "Superbad" DVD movies carrying copies of a phony Hawaii driver's license featured in the hit comedy have been pulled from all Wal-Mart stores in the islands, a recall that could spread nationally, officials said yesterday.
The move came after Mayor Mufi Hannemann on Wednesday called the promotional plastic card "inappropriate" advertising, fearing minors could use it to pass as adults or buy alcohol. The city notified local authorities and even the Department of Homeland Security about the cards.
In the movie, produced by Sony Pictures, actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who plays high school teenager Fogell, tries to buy more than $100 worth of liquor for a senior party using a fake Hawaii I.D.
"We're very pleased that Wal-Mart has taken prompt, corrective measures to comply with the city's request to protect the integrity of our driver's license," Hannemann said yesterday in a news release. "It was foolish of the movie studio to include this prop in the DVD, particularly because it could be used by unscrupulous people to deceive others who are unfamiliar with our driver's license."
It's unclear if Wal-Mart's sales ban, for now limited to its seven Hawaii stores, would affect mainland shops also offering the "Superbad" DVD package. Wal-Mart is the only retailer marketing the movies with the card, according to Sony Pictures, though countless copies of the special package are up for sale on eBay and other Internet Web sites.
Brian Halsey, market manager over operations for Wal-Mart in Hawaii, said company officials "were considering" expanding the recall to all stores, but he wasn't aware of a decision yesterday.
Sony Pictures, declining to comment on how many special "Superbad" packages had been made, said yesterday there are no plans for additional production. In an e-mail, it said the card "has a shifting, dual photograph and other features to make clear it's not a real I.D."
"We regret that it has caused concerns in Hawaii or elsewhere," the company said. "This was a one-time promotion and no further shipments are planned."
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Land Of Odd: Spiked Meatballs
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A US counter-terrorism police officer who says he failed a drugs test because his wife spiked his meatballs with marijuana is suing to get his job back.
Anthony Chiofalo, of New York Police Department (NYPD), has asked Manhattan Supreme Court to challenge his firing.
He was suspended in 2005 after 22 years of service, for failing a random test.
His wife told investigators she had secretly drugged his meatballs hoping a failed test would force him to retire. NYPD said the story was "not credible".
Both Mr Chiofalo and his wife Catherine have passed lie detector tests about how the marijuana entered the police officer's system.
Back pain
Mrs Chiofalo told investigators she had put enough marijuana for six cigarettes in her meatball recipe in July 2005, according to court papers.
She testified at a hearing that she just wanted her husband "not to die of a heart attack or get killed" while still in service, the Associated Press news agency quotes the court papers as saying.
"I wanted him to be around to help raise my son," she said. She had reportedly expected him to retire in 2004 after 20 years in the force.
Mr Chiofalo said his wife had marijuana in the house because she used it to alleviate suffering caused by chronic back pain.
An administrative judge recommended that Mr Chiofalo be reinstated to the Joint Terrorism Task Force but Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly rejected that opinion and fired him.
Mr Chiofalo hopes the court will rule his dismissal unconstitutional and force the NYPD to re-hire him.
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Land Of Odd: Monkeys beat students in memory game
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Chimpanzees have an extraordinary photographic memory that is far superior to ours, research suggests.
Young chimps outperformed university students in memory tests devised by Japanese scientists.
The tasks involved remembering the location of numbers on a screen, and correctly recalling the sequence.
The findings, published in Current Biology, suggest we may have under-estimated the intelligence of our closest living relatives.
Until now, it had always been assumed that chimps could not match humans in memory and other mental skills.
"There are still many people, including many biologists, who believe that humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions," said lead researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University.
"No one can imagine that chimpanzees - young chimpanzees at the age of five - have a better performance in a memory task than humans.
"Here we show for the first time that young chimpanzees have an extraordinary working memory capability for numerical recollection - better than that of human adults tested in the same apparatus, following the same procedure."
Memory tests
Dr Matsuzawa and colleagues tested three pairs of mother and baby chimpanzees against university students in a memory task involving numbers.
The mothers and their five-year-old offspring had already been taught to "count" from one to nine.
During the experiment, each subject was presented with various numerals from one to nine on a touch screen monitor.
The numbers were then replaced with blank squares and the test subject had to remember which number appeared in which location, then touch the appropriate square.
They found that, in general, the young chimps performed better than their mothers and the adult humans.
The university students were slower than all of the three young chimpanzees in their response.
The researchers then varied the amount of time that the numbers appeared on-screen to compare the working memory of humans and chimps.land of odd
Chimps performed much better than university students in speed and accuracy when the numbers appeared only briefly on screen.
The shortest time duration, 210 milliseconds, did not leave enough time for the subjects to explore the screen by eye movement - something we do all the time when we read.
This is evidence, the researchers believe, that young chimps have a photographic memory which allows them to memorise a complex scene or pattern at a glance. This is sometimes present in human children but declines with age, they say.
"Young chimpanzees have a better memory than human adults," Dr Matsuzawa told BBC News.
"We are still underestimating the intellectual capability of chimpanzees, our evolutionary neighbours."
'Ground-breaking'
Dr Lisa Parr, who works with chimps at the Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University in Atlanta, US, described the research as "ground-breaking".
She said the importance of these primates for understanding the skills necessary for the evolution of modern humans was unparalleled.
"They are our closest living relatives and thus are in a unique position to inform us about our evolutionary heritage," said Dr Parr.
"These studies tell us that elaborate short-term memory skills may have had a much more salient function in early humans than is present in modern humans, perhaps due to our increasing reliance on language-based memory skills."
The research is published in Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press.
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Land of Odd: Voters Bribed With Viagra
BANGKOK, Thailand - Vote-buying is an old practice in Thai politics.
But one candidate for December's Thai election has reportedly come up with a new tactic - handing out Viagra instead of cash.
The allegation, made today by a campaign worker against a rival party, comes as rules about handing out favours to voters have become stricter than ever.
Sayan Nopcha, a campaigner for the People's Power party in Pathum Thai province just north of Bangkok, said the drug used to treat sexual dysfunction in men was being distributed to elderly male voters.
Viagra is supposed to be used only on a doctor's advice, but is generally available over the counter in Thailand.
He would not identify the candidate who allegedly handed out the pills.
Under a tough new law, both the supplier and recipient of vote-buying can face criminal charges. Candidates can be disqualified and their party disbanded, as was the case with the old law, while voters who accept money or gifts can now face from one to 10 years in prison.
More than 4,200 candidates from 41 parties are competing for 480 seats in the lower house of parliament in the Dec. 23 polls - the first to be held after a bloodless military coup ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September last year.
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